Plant growth is a field that has been utilized and manipulated since the beginning of time. Regulation of water flow patterns, namely the use of irrigation, allowed for the growth of crops in many regions of the world with greater efficiency and yield. With increasing worldwide populations, current agricultural lands will soon become inadequate in production of the crops necessary for an increasing population. In an effort to produce better nutrition with current agricultural lands, genetic engineering is being used to increase crop quality as well as yields. Even with these advancements, alternative lands and growing methods will be necessary to produce the crops necessary for a growing population.
Plants not used for food but for other purposes, such as for decoration, covering for sports fields and used to stabilize soil susceptible to erosion also suffer from their ability to only grow within prescribed environments, based on soil types, growing seasons, temperature, humidity and other environmental and ecological factors. The ability to grow grasses and other soil covering plants in non-indigenous environments would be beneficial for the establishment and maintenance of fields used for sporting events, landscaping and stabilization of land in areas susceptible to erosion of the topsoil. Based on these needs, there exists the need to develop systems and methods that are useful for the regulation of plant growth in a variety of environments.